ABSTRACT
A large stone building complex reveals a complicated story of cultural and commercial relationships that spans three and a half centuries in the once-bustling metropolis of Anomabo, Ghana, West Africa. Although the complex has had three noteworthy owners, this essay will concentrate on its initial patron and builder, Irishman Richard Brew, a slave trader and Governor of Anomabo Fort, built for the British Company of Merchants Trading to Africa. The complex includes a two-story, Palladian style, stone nog home Brew called “Castle Brew.” For the Irishman, it visualized his commercial success, high status in the local community, and ties to his homeland of Ireland. The courtyard and storage rooms in buildings across the courtyard served as holding cells for the captives for sale into slavery on the European and American ships docked at sea. Thus, while Castle Brew symbolized Brew’s dreams realized, it also symbolized devastated dreams for those waiting to be extracted from their homeland.
